Enjoy Iced Chai Latte at the convenience of your own home. Feel free to customize it with the milk and sweetener of your choice! 

Chai and I have a lovely relationship; it’s my choice of beverage and currently, it’s in the form of Iced Chai Latte. Latte is typically made with espresso and steamed milk but you can replace coffee with other liquids such as chai, matcha and make it at the convenience of your own home. I am all for splurging on good coffee occasionally but if your neighborhood coffee shops makes sub-par Iced Chai Latte, it is probably best to make your own chai concentrate at home and save all that $$$ for something else. Also, if you are vegan or have soy allergy, you can easily choose the milk of your choice to make Iced Chai Latte or drink it ‘on the rocks’. You guys, I have at least a years worth of tea at my disposal.

Thanks to Tea India and my parents for hooking me up with all the good stuff…I used ‘Loose-Leaf Masala Chai” but “Chai’ tea bags will work too.If you are unable to find “Chai” tea bags, you can brew black tea bags with spices such as whole cinnamon, cloves, cardamom  to get that “masala chai” taste. In ca

In case you already don’t know – drinking tea has been linked with many potential health benefits — from reducing cancer and heart disease risk, to improving dental health and boosting weight loss. Before you jump into tea bandwagon please realize that, tea (without sugar/cream) is naturally a great source of antioxidants (polyphenol – catechin) but tea doesn’t CURE or magically make you lose weight. So far,  research has shown the strongest evidence against heart disease due to the antioxidants, few promising studies on green tea & weight loss but everything else is pretty limited.

With all that being said, I don’t want to take away the fun of drinking Ice Chai Latte. Tea is a wonderful beverage that is naturally low in calories, and sugar-free that can be enjoyed hot or cold. If you are looking for an alternate to soda or other sweetened beverages including sweet tea, tea is definitely the way to go. Typically, tea also has less caffeine if you are looking to cut down, however, the amount of caffeine in tea depends upon the type of tea and how it is brewed. PS. black tea such as chai has the highest caffeine and green tea has the least.

I know some of you are still dealing with the snow…but I hope the weather warms up real soon so you can enjoy fun treats such as Golden Milk Popsicles & Iced Chai Latte. I like mine with a splash of almond milk, couple cubes of ice, drizzle of honey, and a dash of cinnamon and cardamom.

Iced Chai Latte

Author: Dixya @Food, Pleasure, and Health
Serves:6-8

Ingredients

• 5 tablespoon loose leaf masala tea (see notes)
• 7 cups water
• Add-ons: honey, cinnamon, cardamom, ice, milk

Instructions

1. In a large pot, boil 5 cups of water.
2. Add loose leaf to the pot and let it boil for 2 minutes, turn off the heat and let it cool down for additional 5 more minutes. If you keep it longer, tea sometimes get bitter so be careful with that.
3. Strain tea using a sieve and let it chill in the fridge overnight or at least several hours.
4. To make latte:
5. Pour some ice cubes in a glass, pour 3/4 cup of brewed tea in the glass, add 1-2 tablespoon of milk (or more if you’d like), drizzle some honey, add some cardamom + cinnamon if you wish.
6. Stir everything together and enjoy it chilled.

Notes

If using a tea bag, use use 5-7 ‘chai’ tea bags. 1 teabag = 2 teaspoon loose leaf but you can use more depending upon how strong you like you tea.